Maria Kanellis stands firm in her status as a Diva, and believes WWE should bring back the Divas Championship.
Though she never captured the Butterly Belt, Kanellis remained a staple of the women’s division for years in WWE. In 2009, she even the won Diva of the Year Slammy Award. However, the Divas era of WWE didn’t always receive a positive rep–as the division gradually became infiltrated with fitness models, or competitors with no prior wrestling background. To counter, Kanellis cited many examples of “workers” during the era, and her pitch to revive the butterfly title.
“There were a ton,” Kanellis told Will Washington, Righteous Reg, & Phil Lindsey of Fightful’s Grapsody podcast. “Trish [Stratus], Lita, Ivory caught the tail end of that. Victoria, Molly was in that era. You had workers. Down the line, you have Beth [Phoenix], Melina, Mickie [James], Nattie. You had a ton of workers that came from the Indies too. It was a mix at that time. I think they should bring back the Butterfly belt, I do. I know people will disagree with me and that’s fine. That’s why wrestling is great because when you watch wrestling, you don’t see everybody looking exactly the same.”
The “First Lady Of Wrestling” continued on to embrace her status as a Diva, noting that there “is a place for everyone” in professional wrestling.
“I still consider myself a diva because it gave me the first opportunity in my career. I think some of those segments were funny and cute. We should have a little bit of humor to it,” she recalled.
Expanding on her previous point, Kanellis explained finding a middle point in women’s wrestling “works the best” to balance out both ends of the presentation spectrum.
“I sometimes write in my Twitter messages, ‘Still a Diva.’ It had to [fluctuate],” Kanellis noted. “You have to go all the way to the right and then all the way to the left and then somewhere in the middle we find what works the best. I still there’s a place for that. I still think if you want to be glamorous and do more girly moves, that’s fine, that’s your style. If you want to be more aggressive and go out there with no makeup and wearing no shorts and t-shirt, fine. Talent comes in all forms. Sexy, there is a whole rainbow of sexy. That’s how society is.”
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